New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his daily briefing that he thought Americans would be living with the consequences of the coronavrius pandemic for a long time.
Said Cuomo: “I don’t think we get back to normal. I think we get to a new normal.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his daily briefing that he thought Americans would be living with the consequences of the coronavrius pandemic for a long time.
Said Cuomo: “I don’t think we get back to normal. I think we get to a new normal.”
“I don’t believe the president has ever belittled the threat of the coronavirus.”
— Vice President Mike Pence, in a CNN interview.
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Unable to find a port willing to accept them, a cruise ship with more than 1,400 passengers “has been stuck in a holding pattern for nearly two weeks as it desperately goes from country to country,” NBC News reports.
“So far they have been rejected by Chile, Peru and Argentina, which all sealed their ports amid the coronavirus outbreak. They are now charting a hope-filled course for the United States, namely Fort Lauderdale, Florida.”
“Four people have died on the ship, at least two from the coronavirus, nine others have tested positive and 179 others are experiencing flu-like symptoms.”
But Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told Fox News his state does not have the resources to take them: “We cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources.”
“Gov. Tony Evers has agreed to use members of the Wisconsin Army National Guard to work at the polls during the April 7 election amid a massive shortage of poll workers that is leaving some communities without anyone to give voters ballots on Election Day,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“More than 100 communities in Wisconsin don’t have any poll workers for the spring election in six days and a record number of voters are overwhelming clerks with absentee ballots — leading to warnings that thousands of votes may not be counted.”
When asked when did President Trump know that 100,000 Americans dying from the coronavirus was the best case scenario, Vice President Mike Pence told CNN: “We have been working to given the president best projections. Italy may be most comparable area to the United States.”
“China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease, the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a classified report to the White House,” Bloomberg reports.
Joe Biden confirmed that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is one of the women he’s considering as a potential running mate in his White House bid, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Said Biden on MSNBC: “She made the list in my mind two months ago. There’s probably going to be a list, I’m in the process of, Brian, we’ll have it by mid-April, putting together an organization that will run the background checks…by the second or third week in April.”
Coming soon: The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution by Lindsay M. Chervinsky.
“On November 26, 1791, George Washington convened his department secretaries—Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, and Edmund Randolph—for the first cabinet meeting. Why did he wait two and a half years into his presidency to call his cabinet? Because the US Constitution did not create or provide for such a body. Washington was on his own.”
“Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s (R-GA) most recent financial disclosures show that millions of dollars in stocks were sold on her behalf at the same time Congress was dealing with the impact of the coronavirus,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“During the same time period reflected on reports filed late Tuesday, the couple also sold shares in retail stores such as Lululemon and T.J. Maxx and invested in a company that makes COVID-19 protective garments. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution got the first look at these reports, covering mid-February through mid-March and shedding new light on Loeffler’s financial transactions during the pandemic. Previous reports — which have put Loeffler in the national spotlight — covered her trading during the first six weeks of 2020.”
Joe Biden released a new video comparing his words about the coronavirus pandemic to President Trump’s.
Just one month ago, the New York Times reported on how President Trump blamed the media and Democrats for exaggerating the coronavirus outbreak.
It’s destined to be an important document when historians look back at the 2020 pandemic.
The best scoop from Jon Karl’s Front Row at the Trump Show which is out today:
Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told his staff to read the book A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness, which argues that in “times of crisis, we are better off being led by mentally ill leaders than by mentally normal ones.”
Mulvaney apparently believed that Trump was mentally ill and that it might actually be a good thing.
“President Trump’s repeated downplaying of the coronavirus threat has increasingly come back to haunt him as the outbreak has truly taken hold. But in the most hard-hit area in the country, another top politician’s previous comments minimizing the threat are forcing a reckoning,” the New York Times reports.
“Throughout the crisis that has now hit New York City harder than any other area of the country, Mayor Bill de Blasio offered comments that, like Trump, downplayed the threat and suggested the city was ready for what lay ahead. The mayor also repeatedly told people that transmission of the disease was very unlikely in casual encounters and in public places.”
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams was asked by NBC News about governors, like Florida’s Ron DeSantis (R), who have not yet issued statewide “stay at home” orders.
Said Adams: “My advice to America would be that these guidelines are a national stay-at-home order.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that he is part of ongoing discussions with congressional lawmakers about a potential infrastructure bill that would be designed to help boost the U.S. economy as it struggles to cope with the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.
A Boston Globe editorial said that President Trump has “blood on his hands” due to his actions during the coronavirus pandemic.
“While the spread of the novel coronavirus has been aggressive around the world, much of the profound impact it will have here in the United States was preventable. As the American public braces itself for the worst of this crisis, it’s worth remembering that the reach of the virus here is not attributable to an act of God or a foreign invasion, but a colossal failure of leadership…”
“Many pivotal decision points in this crisis are past us, but more are still to come. For our own sake, every American should be hoping for a miraculous turnaround — and that the too-little, too-late strategy of the White House task force will henceforth at least prevent contagion and economic ruin of the grandest scale. But come November, there must be a reckoning for the lives lost, and for the vast, avoidable suffering about to ensue under the president’s watch.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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